The present invention relates to a method allowing to better assess disposable absorbent articles such as diapers, incontinence articles, sanitary towels, training pants and the like in view of their impact on the hydration status of the skin of the wearer.
Disposable, absorbent articles such as diapers, incontinence articles, sanitary towels, training pants and the like are well known in the art. Typically, disposable absorbent articles comprise a liquid previous topsheet that faces the wearer""s body, a liquid impervious backsheet that faces the wearer""s clothing, an absorbent core interposed between the liquid previous topsheet and the backsheet, and means to keep the core in fixed relation to the wearer""s body.
Also well known in the art are methods to assess the performance of such articles, such as acquisition tests, capillary rewet tests or collagen rewet tests. All current methods assess either the liquid handling capability of an absorbent article or the impact of liquid more or less well retained by an article on human skin or materials representing human skin.
Thus, all methods fail to provide meaningful results where either no direct contact is present between the skin of the wearer, i.e. where the gas or vapour phase dominates the physical conditions.
Henceforth, it is an object of the present invention to provide an easy to use tool for assessing the performance of absorbent articles not only with regard to liquid handling performance, but also with regard to the vapour phase inside the article.
The present invention provides a new method for assessing disposable absorbent articles with regard to their impact on skin aeration by measuring relative humidity values in a mannequin test set up.